I drove 20 miles yesterday, when I could start to feel the front left brake bind and eventually it was binding enough to hold the car in drive.
When I arrived at my destination the wheel was almost to hot to hold.
6 hours later I did the return journey, no problem.
I checked the service history and can see that this calliper was replaced in March 2011.

Thoughts?

 

When did you change the pads ?
This can happen if the piston gets pushed back into the calliper with either corrosion or crud on it so it binds.

 

Pads were changed at the same time as the calliper, about 12k miles ago.

I'll have a lok at the pad thickness tomorrow.

 

How cold was it? I have seen brakes lock up with water in the fluid on very cold days.

If old brake fluid has been setting in the lines for 5 or 6 yrs strange things start to happen.

 

+1 to the above on corroded pistons and brake fluid deterioration.

If the wheel was too hot to hold, both the caliper and disc will have been considerably hotter than normal. The caliper seals could therefore have been compromised. They may not fail immediately but do you want to risk finding out at high speed in the future?

Graham

 

See this thread for more info on front brake calipers.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...alipers-66024/

 

That leads to the caliper has often failed me on different cars. It allows the pressure to compress the caliper but internal wear will not let it release easily. If the caliper seems "free" when you check it, you may find this is the culprit. It often was the case on the old police Caprices I was fond of "back in the day"...Good Luck!

 

Thanks for all your thoughts, the day it happened the temp was not out of the ordinary.

Yesterday, no problem again, but today today the binding came back so just ordered a new calliper.

I'll flush through new brake fluid when it turns up as I'm not sure when that was last done. Is there anything to watch out for when doing this?

 

When it binds crack open the bleeder on the caliper. If it releases the hose is the most likely culprit (personally, I'd pretty much hang my hat on the hose from this distance.) Replace both sides, never replace brake parts on just one side.

 

I had a look at the caliper today, the wheel was locked up. I opened up the bleed screw but that made no difference. Just waiting for the new calliper to turn up now.

 

The caliper thurned up from ebay, £29. I tested it with some compressed air, the piston worked smoothly. Sandblasted it and painted it black, now fitted and working a treat.